Before you begin working with any of the Microsoft Office programs, you must first open a program. When you finish your work, you can close the program. If applicable, you can save your work before exiting a program completely.

Start and Exit Office Applications

START AN OFFICE APPLICATION

EXIT AN OFFICE APPLICATION

If you have not yet saved your work, the program prompts you to do so before exiting.

The program window closes.

Note

Can I create a shortcut icon for an Office application?

Yes. You can create a shortcut icon that appears on the Windows desktop. Whenever you want to open the program, you can simply double-click the shortcut icon. Follow these steps to create a shortcut icon:

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The Create Shortcut dialog box appears.

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The new shortcut icon appears on the desktop.

All of the Office programs share a common appearance and many of the same features, such as menu bars, toolbars, and scroll bars. When you learn your way around one program, you can easily use the same skills to navigate the other Office programs. If you are new to Office, you should take a moment and familiarize yourself with the types of on-screen elements that you can expect to encounter.

Title Bar

Displays the name of the open file and the Office program.

Office Button Menu

Click to display a menu of file commands, such as New and Open.

Quick Access Toolbar

Displays quick access buttons to the Save, Undo, and Redo commands.

Ribbon

Displays groups of related commands in tabs. Each tab offers shortcut buttons to common tasks.

Status Bar

Displays information about the current worksheet or file.

Program Window Controls

Use these buttons to minimize the program window, restore the window to full size, or close the window.

Formula Bar

This appears only in Excel. Use this bar to type and edit formulas and perform alculations on your worksheet data.

Work Area

The area where you add, and work with, data in a program. Depending on the Office program, the work area may be a document, a worksheet, or a slide.

Document Window Controls

Use these buttons to minimize or restore the current document.

Zoom Controls

Use this feature to zoom your view of a document.

Scroll Bars

Use the vertical and horizontal scroll bars to scroll through the item displayed in the work area, such as a document or worksheet.

Publisher and Outlook still use the familiar menu and toolbar features from previous versions of Office. However, some of the Outlook features, such as the Appointment window, use the new Ribbon features.

New to Office 2007, menus and toolbars in Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access are replaced by the new Ribbon feature. The Ribbon offers an intuitive way to locate commands that accomplish various program tasks. The Ribbon is grouped into tabs, and each tab holds a set of related commands. In addition, some tabs appear only when needed, such as when you are working with a particular object in a document.

Work with the Ribbon

USE THE RIBBON

The tab organizes related tasks and commands into logical groups.

When you move the mouse pointer over Live Preview options on the Ribbon, you see the results in the document before applying the command.

MINIMIZE THE RIBBON

The Ribbon is minimized.

Note

Is there a way I can keep the Ribbon minimized?

Yes. You can keep the Ribbon minimized and click a tab when you need to use a command. Follow these steps:

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The program's Ribbon is minimized at the top of the screen.

To use a Ribbon while it is minimized, you can simply click the tab containing the tools that you want to access.

The Quick Access toolbar appears in the top-left corner of the program window. You can use the toolbar to quickly activate the Save, Undo, and Redo commands. You can customize the toolbar to include other commands that you need to keep in view at all times. For example, you might add the Quick Print command or another common command you use. You can also choose to display the toolbar above or below the Ribbon.

Customize the Quick Access Toolbar

The Options dialog box opens to the Customize tab.

You can repeat Steps 5 and 6 to add additional buttons to the toolbar.

Note

How do I remove a button from the Quick Access toolbar?

To remove a command, reopen the program's Options dialog box by following the steps in this task, click the command name in the list box on the right, and then click the Remove button. Click OK. The button no longer appears on the toolbar.

Are there other ways to customize the Quick Access toolbar?

Yes. You can add commands directly from the Ribbon and place them on the toolbar. Simply click the tab containing the command that you want to add, right-click the command, and then click Add to Quick Access Toolbar. The command is immediately added as a button on the toolbar.

In previous versions of Office, you could customize the program window to suit the way you worked. You can do the same in Office 2007 using the Options dialog box. The dialog box features groups of settings that you can change to control how the program works, looks, and interacts with you.

Find Customizing Options

This example uses the Word Options button.

The program's Options dialog box appears.

Each tab displays sets of related controls that you can set for the program.

Live Preview allows you to preview the effects of a feature before committing to a particular selection. Many of the Ribbon's tools offer Live Previews. For example, when you move the mouse pointer over a gallery item on the Ribbon, the style is immediately reflected in the document. You can turn the feature off if you find it too distracting.

Turn Off Live Preview

This example uses the Excel Options button.

The program's Options dialog box appears.

The program turns off Live Preview.

You must log on to your Internet connection in order to use the online Help files.

You can use the Office Help tools to assist you when you run into a problem or need more information about a particular task. With an Internet connection, you can use Microsoft's online Help files to quickly access information about an Office feature. The Help window offers tools that enable you to search for topics that you want to learn more about.

Find Help with Office

The Help window opens.

You can also press

Note

Can I use the Help feature if I am offline?

Yes. You can still access the Help files that are installed with the program. However, the online resources offer you more help topics, as well as links to demos and other help tools.

Where can I find a table of contents for the Help files?

You can click the Home button (

You can use the Office Diagnostics tool to diagnose and repair problems that you are having with any Office program. For example, a program may not work properly if an important program file is corrupted or accidentally deleted. You can run the diagnosis to check the problem and attempt to make any repairs. Microsoft Word's diagnostic tool is shown in this example

Diagnose Office Programs

The program's Options dialog box appears.

The Microsoft Office Diagnostics dialog box appears

The Office Diagnostics program runs. The procedure may take awhile.

If the program finds any problems, you can follow the prompts to fix them.

Note

What if I am still having trouble with my Office programs

You can also run the repair program with the Microsoft Setup feature. To do so, insert your Office CD and click the Repair option when prompted. Setup runs the repair tool, which may take along time, depending on your computer's resources.

How do I update my Office program?

You can use the Resources tab in the Options dialog box to check for program updates. Open the dialog box as shown in this task, and click the Resources tab. Next, click the Check for Updates button. You must log onto your Internet connection in order to check for program updates.